2022 SEC Baseball Hat Schedule
- Thread starter CB3UK
- Start date
Hard to tell at this point, but it has some positives and negatives.
We will always get Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, Vanderbilt, Missouri, and South Carolina, so that is just what it is. However, our west opponent rotates and this year we draw Arkansas, Ole Miss, Texas A&M, and Auburn.
Arkansas - Had an amazing year stopped short last year. They based their run largely on pitching and some major players in that pitching staff are now gone. The most famous of which was all world reliever Kopp. I am not sure how that kid has an arm anymore after throwing 89.2 innings and only starting 1 game. However, they also lost Wicklander, who was their Friday starter and some other key pieces. That being said, Arkansas IIRC, started to go away from the traditional pitching method and moved towards the Tampa Bay Rays method of starters only going 3 or so innings before giving way to the bullpen. So, they aren't as reliant on starters as most, but they still have pieces to replace. A lot of their hitting is back though. It might be good that UK faces them fairly early, but it being in Arkansas makes it tougher. D1Baseball ranks Arkansas as the 3rd best team in the country and ranked them as having the 2nd best class of newcomers.
Ole Miss - I have not dug too deeply into the SEC to know about all the teams, but so far... Ole Miss is one of my favorites to win it. D1Baseball has them ranked 5th in the country to start 2022. Ole Miss led the league in hitting a year ago at .288. Amazingly, they hit a bit better in conference at .289. They return umm... everyone. I mean, I had to double check to make sure that I was looking at the right year. They played 17 guys in the field a year ago and they return all but 3 of them. The three that they lost are their 3 worst hitters, and only one was a starter. I don't see why they couldn't continue to hit well in 2022. Pitching will be a different story. They lost Doug Nikhazy, their Friday ace who was 7-1 and had a 1.67 ERA in conference play as well as Gunnar Hogland who had 7 starts and 2.77 ERA in conference play. They do bring back two other guys that each had 7 SEC starts, but their stats are no where near as impressive, with ERAs above 6.00. Basically, their most often used pitchers are largely gone now. So, they'll be looking for new talent there. Probably someone like 6'8 Wes Burton will likely step up to a much bigger role.
Texas A&M - One of the harder ones to gauge. TAMU was awful in 2021, which led to their coach getting canned. They were 9-21 in league play and were ranked in the bottom half in both pitching and hitting. So, they hired Jim Schlossnagle from TCU. He has a long way to go, but he brought in a top 5 class of newcomers according to D1Baseball. They seem pretty impressed with the transfers, especially the arms. They got pitchers from Texas Tech, Stanford and Miss State. The Stanford transfer is All Pac12 Honorable Mention Jacob Palsich who had an 11-3 career record with a 3.51 ERA. The Texas Tech transfer was a Freshman All American in 2019 and a 2020 2nd team All American. This is one of the more favorable matchups as we avoid having to play a surging LSU or Miss State. Still not easy, but a lot of their best players left from last year, so they, like us, will rely on a lot of new faces to pick up the slack. Like us, they'll rely on transfers from Hawaii and Arizona State to help them out.
Auburn - Auburn could be pretty bad in 2022, so this might be the biggest break for UK. There are 4 SEC West teams ranked in the top 25 and UK went 50/50 on those, drawing 2 ranked and 2 unranked. Auburn is one of those unranked teams. They finished just above TAMU a year ago at 10-20 in league play and 25-27 overall. Their claim to fame in 2021 was that their team hit .281, third best, in the conference. However, that number was pretty padded by an OOC schedule. In conference that number dropped to .265 (UK, for reference, hit .255). Pitching is where things were the most disgusting. A 5.24 ERA overall for the Tigers. To make all things worse, Auburn lost 5 position players, including SS Ryan Bliss who hit .365 and had 15 homers a year ago, as well as their third baseman and first baseman, who hit .320 and .313 respectively. So, their three top players. On the mound they lost Greenhill, who started 5 league games; Owen who started 8 league games, and Fitts who started another 5 league games... so over half the SEC game starts they lost. These were also their better starters on a bad staff, the returning starters have ERAs over 6.00. They brought in 12 transfers and 10 freshmen. Three of the transfers come from Samford, 2 from Chattahoochee Valley CC and the only one from a P5 conference school came from Notre Dame. If UK wants to be successful in 2022, this is a series they have to win, and should probably sweep. I just don't see a ton of talent on this Auburn team that really scares me or worries me. They lost a ton off a bad team and I don't think they brought in enough experienced guys to replace what they lost.
So, the good here is that UK faces 10 SEC teams and 3 of them are possibly the three worst teams in the league. In the SEC, getting to face 4 possibly unranked teams is pretty decent, especially if you're one of the unranked one. Unfortunately, UK will still face:
Arkansas (2)
Vanderbilt (3)
Ole Miss (5)
Florida (9)
Georgia (16)
Tennessee (19)
They will also add TCU (17)
Going to be a tough season.
We’ll the football recruiting is dying down so it’s time to crank up the baseball posts. We’re about a month out.
Amen to that. I'm ready to some baseball action. First game is Feb 18th so we are a month away.
I don't know how we could have hoped for a better schedule really. I mean, in a dream world we would swap Arkansas with Alabama I guess and maybe Ole Miss with LSU? But LSU is preseason #8 even though they were 4th in the West last year. But, other than that, what changes would we hope for to make it a better schedule? We are in the SEC east. Every schedule is going to look brutal. But, as a team in the SEC east, I don't think we could hope for a better schedule. We have the bottom 2 teams from the West from last year, the top team and 3rd from last year.
Go to this link: https://www.secsports.com/schedule/baseball and check out the other east teams schedules. I think we have maybe the 2nd best conference schedule in terms of difficulty next to South Carolina. Vandy's is pretty similar to ours, but other than the 3 of us, the other east schedules are even worse than ours. Look at Mizzou - they play Ark. Ole Miss, Miss State and LSU. Personally, if they would have told me to take my pick of who our west opponents would be, I wouldn't have been far off of picking these for us. I would have just made sure that we got Alabama instead of Arkansas.
Who knows what the year holds, but either way, I am hoping for the best and excited to see what the new guys can do.
Go to this link: https://www.secsports.com/schedule/baseball and check out the other east teams schedules. I think we have maybe the 2nd best conference schedule in terms of difficulty next to South Carolina. Vandy's is pretty similar to ours, but other than the 3 of us, the other east schedules are even worse than ours. Look at Mizzou - they play Ark. Ole Miss, Miss State and LSU. Personally, if they would have told me to take my pick of who our west opponents would be, I wouldn't have been far off of picking these for us. I would have just made sure that we got Alabama instead of Arkansas.
Who knows what the year holds, but either way, I am hoping for the best and excited to see what the new guys can do.
Right... thats what im saying
.. so other than somehow swapping in Alabama for Arkansas, I don't see how we could make our schedule any better?! I also think it is pretty awesome that TCU is coming to UK to play a series. Though I'm not sure why they would come in early March weather rather than us going there! I think we have a shot to make that series a signature series to set the tone for the year. They've got a first year coach and it's early in the year, and at home. We might surprise them and in turn, build some confidence heading toward conference play. Let's goooooooooooo!
I imagine that UK agreed to do a home and home with them when we played there in 2020. Still kind of unusual though.
I think you pick your poison with the SEC. There is no "easy."
I would say that at this point there are 10 teams in the SEC that are high quality. There are 4 that are not. We are one of those 4. We play 3 of the other teams that aren’t high quality (Missouri, TAMU, and Auburn). So, in that respect, that is about as good as it could get for us. We have to travel to Arkansas and TAMU. So, that is kind a push. Arkansas on the road is going to be a tough weekend. TAMU on the road is a tough place to play, but it is better to go there than the Grove.
On TCU… I don’t know that they will miss a beat. While they lost their head coach, they basically just promoted everyone else. Saarloos went from pitching coach to head coach and Bill Mossiello stayed to continue coaching hitters. They then promoted their volunteer assistant, who had been there since 2018, and he’ll coach OF, catchers and will recruit. They even hired a former player to the VA role. That is a whole lot of continuity despite losing the HC.
Seems like they return a good core group, but they lose some big time players.
Losses:
CF - Phillip Sikes - .329
C – Zach Humphreys - .316
DH – Hunter Wolfe - .315
1B – Gene Wood - .273
Returning:
3B - Brayden Taylor - .324
RF – Luke Boyers - .307
2B - Gray Rodgers .287
SS – Tommy Sacco - .231
LF – Elijah Nunez - .225
BN – Porter Brown – .342 – can DH and play OF
They hit .288 a year ago and actually hit .302 in the Big 12. They lost some big hitters, but they should be able to do some good things with that core returning group. Also, if they are anything like a year ago, they’ll run for days. They attempted 140 steals in 2021. 9 guys attempted double digit steals. By contrast, UK ran more than usual in 2021 and still only attempted 86 steals, with Lewis, Hill and Schultz (now all three gone) being the only three to attempt double digit steals. So, Rubalcaba better be ready, especially since opponents ran on Rubalcaba a good amount when he was in there a year ago (10 times in limited innings, compared to 22 times with Kessler).
Pitching wise:
Losses:
Russell Smith – 3.83 ERA (Friday starter)
Johnny Ray – 6.50 ERA (Sunday starter)
Haylen Green – 3.33 ERA (25 appearances 48.2 innings pitched out of the pen)
Charles King – 3.90 ERA (5 starts and 60 innings pitched)
Retuning:
Austin Krob – 3.81 ERA ( Saturday starter)
River Ridings – 1.08 ERA (bullpen arm with 33.1 innings pitched and 23 appearances with 1 start)
Cam Brown – 1.93 ERA (appeared in and started just 3 games. Not sure why he didn’t pitch more)
Garrett Wright – 3.63 ERA (19 appearances, 22.1 innings)
There are some others in there, but this is the meat of it. Krob likely moves to Friday. He’s considered a 2nd or 3rd team preseason All American. They picked up Brett Walker (RHP – 3.66 ERA) from Oregon. He was National Pitcher of the Week in April of 2021 and had 15 starts, usually Sundays, for them in 2021. Caleb Bolden also transferred to TCU from Arkansas where he started 16 games over the course of his career and had a 3.86 ERA. Bolden started 10 for Arkansas a year ago. So, I have to expect those 3 will anchor the weekend for TCU.
Like I said, I doubt they miss a beat and they’ll be extremely tough. This, clearly, is the first big test for UK and will give us an early indication of how our season might go.
On TCU… I don’t know that they will miss a beat. While they lost their head coach, they basically just promoted everyone else. Saarloos went from pitching coach to head coach and Bill Mossiello stayed to continue coaching hitters. They then promoted their volunteer assistant, who had been there since 2018, and he’ll coach OF, catchers and will recruit. They even hired a former player to the VA role. That is a whole lot of continuity despite losing the HC.
Seems like they return a good core group, but they lose some big time players.
Losses:
CF - Phillip Sikes - .329
C – Zach Humphreys - .316
DH – Hunter Wolfe - .315
1B – Gene Wood - .273
Returning:
3B - Brayden Taylor - .324
RF – Luke Boyers - .307
2B - Gray Rodgers .287
SS – Tommy Sacco - .231
LF – Elijah Nunez - .225
BN – Porter Brown – .342 – can DH and play OF
They hit .288 a year ago and actually hit .302 in the Big 12. They lost some big hitters, but they should be able to do some good things with that core returning group. Also, if they are anything like a year ago, they’ll run for days. They attempted 140 steals in 2021. 9 guys attempted double digit steals. By contrast, UK ran more than usual in 2021 and still only attempted 86 steals, with Lewis, Hill and Schultz (now all three gone) being the only three to attempt double digit steals. So, Rubalcaba better be ready, especially since opponents ran on Rubalcaba a good amount when he was in there a year ago (10 times in limited innings, compared to 22 times with Kessler).
Pitching wise:
Losses:
Russell Smith – 3.83 ERA (Friday starter)
Johnny Ray – 6.50 ERA (Sunday starter)
Haylen Green – 3.33 ERA (25 appearances 48.2 innings pitched out of the pen)
Charles King – 3.90 ERA (5 starts and 60 innings pitched)
Retuning:
Austin Krob – 3.81 ERA ( Saturday starter)
River Ridings – 1.08 ERA (bullpen arm with 33.1 innings pitched and 23 appearances with 1 start)
Cam Brown – 1.93 ERA (appeared in and started just 3 games. Not sure why he didn’t pitch more)
Garrett Wright – 3.63 ERA (19 appearances, 22.1 innings)
There are some others in there, but this is the meat of it. Krob likely moves to Friday. He’s considered a 2nd or 3rd team preseason All American. They picked up Brett Walker (RHP – 3.66 ERA) from Oregon. He was National Pitcher of the Week in April of 2021 and had 15 starts, usually Sundays, for them in 2021. Caleb Bolden also transferred to TCU from Arkansas where he started 16 games over the course of his career and had a 3.86 ERA. Bolden started 10 for Arkansas a year ago. So, I have to expect those 3 will anchor the weekend for TCU.
Like I said, I doubt they miss a beat and they’ll be extremely tough. This, clearly, is the first big test for UK and will give us an early indication of how our season might go.
Peyton Pellette, Arkansas' Friday night starter, is already out for the season. Torn UCL/Tommy John surgery.
We open SEC play with the Hogs, so the news does have some impact on the Bat Cats
We open SEC play with the Hogs, so the news does have some impact on the Bat Cats
Yep. But i think Arky will use the johnny all staff approach. Few going more than 3 or 4.
7 of the top 8 pitchers from last season are gone now. Definitely going to be interesting, seems like every pitcher left is a freshman or sophomore.
Yea, it is actually a bit surprising to me that Arkansas is ranked so highly right now. Not that they can't or won't live up to that, but it seems like your guys lost a whole lot and are having to rely on a lot of new faces. This loss is definitely a tough one for Arkansas, but it seems like Van Horn has moved to the Tampa Bay way of managing pitching staffs, where you don't rely on the traditional starters as much. So, with that philosophy, maybe things are kind of easier on everyone?
Yeah I think D1Baseball has us a little high at #2 but I could see being around the #10 range preseason. The offense and defense are still VERY good, but it surprised me that we didn't go after a transfer portal pitcher in the offseason. Kept expecting it but it never happened.
Just to go with this, we will have 9 games on TV this year, either on ESPNU or on SECN. Of course, all games at home will be shown by the SEC Network/ESPN streaming.
Looks like next weekend will only be available on ESPN+. So, sounds like that might be one we have to pay for. I'll probably just be listening, having some adult drinks, and keeping score from my garage.
Looks like next weekend will only be available on ESPN+. So, sounds like that might be one we have to pay for. I'll probably just be listening, having some adult drinks, and keeping score from my garage.
I can usually find a stream for every single game, even if it is "paywalled" on +.
So I will do my best to remember to put the link on this board so you all can enjoy.
Jax State just over a week away. Bengals and Cayts basketball are killing it right now, but with zero MLB news I am EXTRA hungry for baseball action.
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